dial episode 65

DIAL
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Final Sequence 65
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She looked at me with sheer horror on her face.
And I looked at her with sheer horror on my face.
The pastor looked at me with sheer horror on his face.
The Best man was horrified, and so was the Maid of Honour.
“What’s wrong with you?” the woman whose shoulders I was gripping screamed. “Who the hell are you?”
I just stared at her, because she was not Abena Adobea, not my Maa Abena.
They might have been of the same build, but this bleach-faced woman with the heavy makeup could not possibly be my angel Maa Abena.
I let her go with a groan of despair as I shook my head in horror.
“Oh!” I whispered, appalled. “I’m sorry, please, so sorry. I heard a woman I love was having a wedding. Her name is Abena Adobea, you see, and I was given this card….and, and when I entered….”
“You thought I was your Abena Adobea?” the stunned bride asked, lights of laughter dancing in her eyes now.
“Yes, yes, oh dear, I’m so very sorry!”
I jumped from the podium where the enraged groom was being helped to his feet, his eyes boring into me.
“This is what happens when no one listens to you!” he shouted tearfully. “You see, Abena? This is what happens! I said we didn’t need to take a loan for the wedding, but you wouldn’t listen to me! You kept saying God would make a way, God will make a way! Is this a way? What kind of God way is this when I get thrown to the floor on my own wedding?”
I looked at him, shamefaced.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, sir, so, so sorry!” I said as I straightened up his coat and felt the flashes of cameras and phones on my face. “Pardon me, I thought, erroneously, that she was the woman I loved.”
“Satan!” the hassled man shouted. “What the hell do you mean the woman you love? Take her, go on, take her! So you kept this from me, Abena Adobea? You were indeed seeing another man and you kept this from me?”
“Oh, don’t be a sissy, Asamoah,” the bride cried from the podium. “Don’t you understand what is going on here? He thought I was that girl, the one taking care of the food!”
The groom’s face went wide with shock.
“Oh, the caterer?” he asked suddenly and looked at me. “You mean the caterer?”
“Is she also called Abena Adobea?” I asked, terribly disoriented.
“Yes,” the bride replied. “That is one of the reasons why I hired her, apart from the fact that she’s a fantastic cook. She’s has the same name as me. You must be Yaw Biko.”
I gasped and turned to her.
“Yes, yes, I am!” I shouted. “You know her?”
“She’s the one taking care of all the food and drinks,” the bride informed me. “She told me all about you, how she loves you and how you chose to marry some other girl.”
“Shame on you, Biko man!” the groom shouted. “Left her to marry another girl, and yet you don’t want her to get married herself. It is men like you who make this world so horrible!”
“I didn’t marry the other woman because I found out I couldn’t live without Maa Abena!” I said earnestly. “Please, where is she?”
“Oh, she’s getting the reception ready,” the Bride said. “She’ll be in soon.”
The sheer relief almost killed me. I nodded as tears came to my eyes. I put a hand on the shoulder of the groom.
“You took a loan for this wedding, you said,” I said gently.
“Yes, yes, we did, because of Abena!” he said bitterly. “She says she’s growing old and needs to marry and have children! I don’t have a good work, and neither does she! We’re even going to stay in a single room in her father’s house, can you imagine?”
I smiled at her.
“Mr. Asamoah, your new wife hired the woman I love,” I said gently as I gave her my card. “I don’t know where you planned to spend your honeymoon. Take this card, and go to the Biko Paradise, Show them that card, and you will be given one of the best Suites to stay in for the duration of your honeymoon.”
Abena Adobea screamed behind me, shrilly, and the congregation screamed too.
“Hey!” Asamoah Adobah said. “Wait…are you…are you the Yao Biko, the one who owns all those Biko Biko things?”
I nodded with a smile.
“I am, yes,” I said gently. “After the honeymoon, I’ll give you a house, and two cars, and a good-paying job. So don’t worry about money, and enjoy yourself.”
When I turned away from him, his bride jumped from the podium into his stunned arms, and they crashed to the floor, screaming and crying with sheer joy.
Everyone was shouting and screaming with happiness. The drums crashed and the organs screamed.
It was a joyous noise, and I was glad to be a part of it.
The congregation applauded, and those near me reached out to touch my arm as I slowly walked toward the entrance, and once more I stood outside, looked on my right, and saw the reception area.
And, standing alone under a long, rectangular tent, was a black plastic chair.
Then I remembered what the Holy Man had said…
…there’s a big black chair in the garden of the church, under the long tent. You must sit on that one…
“You bastard!” I whispered with a relieved chuckle, aware that once more the Holy Man of Wowo had played a lousy trick on me. “You adorable bastard!”
I walked dazedly through the chairs and approached the black plastic chair, and then I sank down wearily into it.
Facing the chair was a long table laden with different trays and silver utensils. I was so impressed. Abena Adobea, a girl with so much spirit who would never give up on life. Faced with the fact that she had lost me, she had launched herself into a trade, nowhere else but the city! She had started cooking, and was now hired to cook at weddings?
What a girl, Lord, what a girl!
My head was bowed, and then I saw a pair of beautiful legs standing in front of me, legs that were unique, legs that were the most beautiful God ever created.
And then, dear Lord, her voice…
“Excuse me, sir,” her voice said gently behind me in Fante. “You may need to move to the other tables, please. This area is reserved for the catering staff.”
I sat up slowly and leaned back, and stared up at the beautiful face of my heart.
Abena Adobea.
She was wearing a simple white dress that stopped at her knees, and she had on a pink and white checked apron. On her head was a chef headgear.
Dearest me, those lips, those eyes, that nose…that angelic face.
She was looking at me, and then her brow creased into a little frown, and she gasped suddenly.
It dawned on me suddenly…
She had never seen me as a young man!
She had met me when I looked elderly, old even, and now she was looking at me and couldn’t recognize me, but something had reminded her of me, yes, and it had brought painful lines on her beautiful face.
And she gazed into my eyes furiously, her sweet lips open, her breath laboured, and a look of pain so severe on her face that I broke down completely as I saw the tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that, with those eyes!” she said, her voice harder. “Please, you must move.”
A young, handsome man with an apron approached her.
“Madam, you’re crying, what’s it?” he asked with concern. “Is he bothering you?”
“No, no, he’s moving,” Abena Adobea said, brushing tears from her cheeks.
I took a deep shuddering breath.
“Oh, Maa Abena,” I said. “Lord, I love you!”
She gasped then, and her beautiful eyes went large with stunned incredulity.
She had heard my voice…and it had spoken to her heart.
“Yao?” she breathed tentatively.
“You once told me I would kneel at your feet one day, Maa Abena,” I said softly as the tears rolled down my cheeks, and then I slid out of the chair and knelt down in front of her, looking up at her face. “For as long as you would have me, I’ll always kneel for you, my love.”
She was rigid, staring down at my face, and as her tears dripped down they fell on my face.
Trembling, she slowly dropped down to her knees too, facing me, and then she raised a hand and put it gently on my cheek. Her lips trembled.
“Yao!” she whispered. “Is this you, my darling?”
I could not speak because the passion was a painful lodge deep in my throat.
“Oh!” she whispered. “Oh, you’re so handsome. You’re too handsome, Yao.”
Slowly, still kneeling, I reached out and took her trembling hands, and I held them tightly.
“Forgive me, Abena,” I said quaveringly. “I gave you pain, and I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t…Yao, did you…” she fumbled miserably.
“No, my darling, my love, my heart, I didn’t marry Dede,” I said unsteadily. “I found out I couldn’t live without you. Oh, Abena!”
We held hands and cried, oblivious of the fact that a crowd was gathering around us. To us, we were the only people left in the world. The happiness was great, and the world was one beautiful place.
“Forever?” she whispered tremulously.
“Forever, my love,” I said gently. “Only one negative thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked, troubled instantly.
“Oh, I found out my father’s real name,” I said with a chuckle. “Kyekyeku. I’m Yao Biko Kyekyeku now. Means you’ll be Mrs. Abena Adobea Kyekyeku.”
“Oh, what a horrible name!” she said with a smile. “One I’ll wear with the biggest of prides, my love. Oh, Yao! I thought I would die! I couldn’t take it!”
“I’ll spend a lifetime making each painful second I caused you up to you, my love!”
“I’m going to burst, Yao,” she whispered, her tears falling faster. “This happiness will kill me!”
I smiled happily, feeling exactly as she was feeling.
“I feel the same, Maa Abena,” I whispered. “If you don’t kiss me, right now, the bubble of joy I feel will just make me float into the air.”
Weeping, laughing, happy, she wrapped her arms around my neck, and I wound mine around her waist, and crushed her to my chest…
The taste of her lips, dear Lord…just the taste of her lips…
“My birthday is in two weeks,” I whispered against her lips. “On that day we’ll have our wedding. On the day I was born, I’ll find my heartbeat.”
“Oh, Yao, you’ll kill me!” she whispered, and then she kissed me so fiercely that I wished she would never stop kissing me.
It was a fine day.
A very fine day!
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THE END..
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